ROLE OF EMOTIONAL LAYER IN MUSEUM EXPERIENCE. NARRATION ON THE HOLOCAUST IN CONTEMPORARY HISTORICAL MUSEUM

Abstract

The starting point for the discussion are the concepts of Pierre Nora and Alison Landsberg. According to P. Nora, the passing away of eyewitnesses to history transfers the obligation to store the traces of the past onto archiving institutions (including museums). A. Landsberg, in turn, reveals the process in which the mechanisms of memory shaping in the contemporary society become dependent on the state-of-the-art technologies and pop-culture products. Museums of the Holocaust are searching for an appropriate language to talk about the Holocaust in a situation where, like other museum institutions, they have to adjust to the new expectations of the audience, and tailor their space and ways of exhibition to the current cultural conditions and new means of learning. Empirical investigations have proven that nowadays receivers do not merely expect to approach the past intellectually, but also to cross the passive boundary of observation, and desire to have sensual experience of history. From this perspective, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum as a physical trace of the past, in accordance with Aleida Assmann’s concept of “a memory of place”, provides the visitors with sensual and emotional experience. In its further part, the article presents strategies for using the products of popular culture for processing and describing historical events, the ways of organizing museum space which affects the emotions and the imagination of receivers and invites them to discover history for themselves. Also, it discusses the resulting concerns about the potential trivialization of the communicated message.